WHAT IS THE ZEN MASTER TALKING ABOUT?

Abstract

I INTEND IN THE FOLLOWING to make sense of Zen non-sense. Fundamental Zen terms like naturalness and emptiness and nothingness are used in disregard of the COIK principle: Clear Only If Known. For example, Shunryu Suzuki, a Zen master, said, It is absolutely necessary for everyone to believe in nothing. (Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice. New York and Tokyo: John Weatherhill, Inc., 1983. Page 117) What did have in mind when used the word nothing? He also said, Originally we have nature. (P. 99) Again, what was thinking of by saying that we all are born having How would readers growing up in Western culture translate into terms familiar to them what this Zen-trained Japanese person meant? Which senses or what observations can be used to imagine something like nothing or to imagine the nature of I shall also speculate as to the relationship between nothingness, emptiness and naturalness and or sitting quiet. Here are some more statements from Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind that will provide opportunities for translation. understanding passed down from to our time is that when you start zazen, there is even without any preparation. Whether you practice zazen or not, you have nature. (P. 99) ...without any idea of attainment, you are always Buddha. This is the true practice of zazen. Then you may understand the true meaning of Buddha's first statement, 'See nature in various beings, and in every one of us.' (P. 132) First, let us look up the derivation of given in Webster's New International Dictionary. The word is from the Sanskrit buddha, awakened, from bodhati, he awakes, is awake, observes, understands. Now let us examine the Buddhist belief that when Gautama experienced enlightenment, became buddha, enlightened. While was meditating under the Bo tree, awoke with a particular understanding. After that was called the Enlightened One. His apparently included his understanding that and everyone else is always by nature enlightened, is always buddha. He said, Buddha nature is in various beings, and in every one of us. Twenty-five hundred years ago Gautama used the word buddha to describe his awakening to a particular understanding. Those who translated his teachings into English used the word enlightenment to describe this awakening to his new understanding. The editors of Webster's Third use enlightenment to describe the Buddha's experience. I wonder what goes on in the minds of people who read this entry and who encounter the word enlightenment in books about Buddhism. The COIK principle warns us against believing we know what the and his followers have meant by this word. Readers of computer manuals and of instructions for putting kits together have suffered from the technical writers' disregard of this principle. The ancient Hindu parable of the Six Blind Men and the Elephant warns us not to assume too quickly that we know what a user of such a word as enlightenment may have meant by it -- especially if our eyes have not been opened by having had a presumably similar experience. What kind of lighting occurs in this enlightenment? To answer this question, let us examine the notion that each of us is a Buddha, that each of us has nature from the beginning to the end of our life. In other words, what is it that each of us has that the Zen masters call Buddha nature? What is it that is observably, tangibly, part of us from birth till death? Our DNA, of course. Our DNA contains our genome, all our genes. Our genes direct the creation of our body and influence the kind of interactions we have with our environment. From the one-celled little creature to the multitudinously-celled adult, the DNA remains constant (unless operated on by a surgeon's recombinant gene procedures). …